How can teacher educators initiate and sustain a culture of inquiry among participants in a graduate program? This was the core issue in the design of a new Masters degree program that emphasized teacher leadership. Now in their fifth year of this program, the authors decided that it was time to publicly document how they taught and studied the…

This report reveals that about 100 Chicago schools suffer from chronically high rates of teacher turnover, losing a quarter or more of their teaching staff every year, and many of these schools serve predominantly low-income African American children. In the typical Chicago elementary school, 51 percent of the teachers working in 2002 had left…

Between 1999 and 2003, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project experienced a series of changes that made it question whether it could survive as a writing project site. The convergence of retirement, unexpected death, and withdrawal of long-term financial support forced the existing leadership to develop a process to look deeply into the work of…

This chapter outlines the considerations necessary in planning and conducting evaluations of teacher leadership programs. It contains a discussion of different definitions of evaluation, their underlying philosophies, and their importance for teacher leadership programs. Specific ideas for conducting teacher leadership program evaluations are…

Challenges current orthodoxy of school organizations and seeks to extend the current debate about distributed leadership. Offers an inclusive view of teacher leadership. Focuses on learning-centered development in which teachers act strategically to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Includes illustrative cases and proposals for…

Principals must create the infrastructure to support teacher-leadership roles. They can transform school leadership by creating opportunities for teachers to lead; building professional-learning communities; providing quality, results-driven professional development; and celebrating innovation and teacher expertise. Celebrating innovation and…

Conceptualizes teacher leadership, examining what leadership is, how teachers are leaders, and how to promote teacher leadership. Teacher leadership should not emphasize simply empowering teachers, but also accomplishing purposes that lead to high quality and socially conscious democratic education. This means leadership must occur in multiple…

While many efforts to foster teacher leadership focus on the power, authority, and control that can come with teachers' formal positions in organizational hierarchies, case studies of 4 teachers document how expertise, credibility, and influence can come together in teachers' activities regardless of the formal positions they hold. These teachers'…

This research is part of a comprehensive effort to pinpoint the key leadership factors that improve student achievement and increase the number of high school graduates who are ready for college and careers. In this study, SREB (Southern Regional Education Board) examined the role of the district office in providing principals with the working…

On August 5, 2006, more than 300 South Carolina National Board Certified Teachers[R] (NBCTs) assembled in Columbia at a policy summit to address the vexing problem of recruiting and retaining accomplished teachers in high-needs schools. Before this summit, the NBCTs read a number of background papers and research summaries. During the summit, they…

There is evidence demonstrating that when young children are part of a learning environment that is based on high standards/expectations, administrative and teacher leadership and continuity in learning opportunities across these grades, the better their developmental outcomes will be through grade three and in future years. By experiencing an…

Leadership development has traditionally focused on administrators' responsibility for promoting and enhancing school improvement efforts. Today, there are a growing number of educators who believe leadership in the classroom plays an equally significant role in building a strong school culture. In Teacher Leadership, Elaine L. Wilmore offers a…

Many teachers fear that their chances to influence decisions about their profession are eroding. Principals must change this perception so that teachers feel empowered as school leaders. Drawing on the work of communications consultant William Isaacs, Glover discusses how principals can engage in communication that encourages teacher leadership by…

Increasingly, there are calls for the school curriculum to reflect the real-world needs of students, such as the need to make difficult choices as citizens. The science curriculum is not exempt from these reappraisals of the relevance of what occurs in schools. Approaches to science involving social contexts are increasingly common, and with them…

If the culture of teaching is to change from one of isolation and professional limitations to one of collaboration and empowerment, administrators must change how they view and interact with teachers. Mr. Steel and Ms. Craig offer specific recommendations for how school leaders can support and facilitate teachers' growth. (Contains 9 endnotes.)